Climate

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CLIMATE CHANGE

CLIMATE CHANGE

Today, many people are talking about climate change, and the ways it will affect our lives in the future. But what is climate change, and why is it happening?

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StandFor Graded Readers provide a range of engaging reading materials for learners of English. Carefully graded by level, the series includes retellings of great classics, and informative, factual titles.

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This book looks at the history of Earth’s climate, and follows recent research into climate change. We see why it matters, and what we can do to control it.

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CLIMATE CHANGE

Level 1 | 380 Headwords Level 2 | 580 Headwords Level 3 | 800 Headwords

ISBN 978-85-96-00695-8

B1

CEFR

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www.standfor.com.br

12580116

Level 4 | 1000 Headwords

CLIL Content and Language Integrated Learning

graded readers

9/20/16 10:44 AM

CLIMATE CHANGE

4 Hannah Fish

graded readers

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© 2016 – StandFor

Editorial Director Lauri Cericato Editorial Manager Cayube Galas Editorial Coordinator Ana Carolina Costa Lopes Series Editor Nick Bullard Editorial Assistant Nathalia Thomaz Production Manager Mariana Milani Production Coordinator Marcelo Henrique Ferreira Fontes Proofreader Nicole Irving

Art Manager Ricardo Borges

Art Coordinator Daniela Di Creddo Máximo Design Yan Comunicação

Cover Design Yan Comunicação

Art Supervisor Patrícia De Michelis

Art Editors/Layout Yan Comunicação,

Lidiani Minoda

Illustrations Coordinator Márcia Berne Illustrations Rodrigo Figueiredo

Operations Director and Reginaldo Soares Damasceno

Print Production Manager

The publisher would like to thank the following for permission to reproduce the photographs:

AFP: p. 40 (Climate Change Conference) Arnaud Bouissou. Easypix Brasil: p. 31 (after hurricane Sandy) Age Fotostock. Folhapress: pp. 23 (deforestation in Brazil) Folhapress; 47 (machine) Adriano Vizoni. Foto Arena: p. 28 (wildfire) Zuma Press/Zuma Press. Getty Images: pp. 34, 35 (houses in Solomon islands) David schweitzer; 44, 45 (Amazon river) Robert Harding World Imagery. Glow Images: p. 29 (floods in France) Irina Kalashnikova/Sputnik. Nasa: pp. 33 (Arctic ice cap in 1980) ; 33 (Arctic ice cap in 2012) . Olhar Imagem: pp. 46 (recycling center) Daniel Agusto Jr; 47 (recycling center) Daniel Agusto Jr. Pulsar: p.

25 (landfill site) Delfim Martins. Science Source/ Latinstock: pp. 36 (before desertification) Nigel J. Dennis; 37 (after desertification) Nigel J. Dennis.

Shutterstock.com: pp. 5 (Khasi Hills) Daniel J. Rao; 5 (Atacama desert) D’July; 12, 13 (Grand Canyon) Jarno Gonzalez Zarraonandia; 13 (fossil) Merlin74; 13 (volcanic eruption) Beboy; 24 (rice planting) John Bill; 26, 27 (man in the water) Saikat Paul; 27 (drought) Thechatat; 30 (snowstorm) Dainis Derics; 38 (seabirds) Francesco de Marco; 39 (mosquito) Smit; 41 (solar panels) FenrisWolf; 43 (electric car) D13; 48 (termovision image) Ivan Smuk; 48 (energy rating sticker) Evan Lorne; 49 (people using bikes) A. Aleksandravicius; 49 (wind turbines) Esbobeldijk; 51 (floating house) Meunierd; 52 (olive grove) N. F. Photography. SPL/Latinstock: pp. 32 (satellite vision of a cyclone) Nasa; 42 (Fukushima) Digital Globe.

Dados Internacionais de Catalogação na Publicação (CIP) (Câmara Brasileira do Livro, SP, Brasil) Fish, Hannah Climate change : standfor graded readers, level 4 / Hannah Fish ; illustrated by Rodrigo Figueiredo. -- 1. ed. -- São Paulo : FTD, 2016.

ISBN 978-85-96-00695-8 (aluno) ISBN 978-85-96-00696-5 (professor) 1. Literatura infantojuvenil I. Figueiredo, Rodrigo. II. Título.

16-06378 CDD-028.5

Índices para catálogo sistemático: 1. Literatura infantil 028.5 2. Literatura infantojuvenil 028.5 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of StandFor. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Rua Rui Barbosa, 156 – Bela Vista – São Paulo-SP – Brasil – CEP 01326-010 Phone 0800 772 2300 – Caixa Postal 65149 – CEP 01390-970 – www.standfor.com.br Impresso no Parque Gráfico da Editora FTD Avenida Antonio Bardella, 300 – Guarulhos-SP – CEP 07220-020 Tel. (11) 3545-8600 e Fax (11) 2412-5375 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

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CLIMATE CHANGE Hannah Fish has worked for many years in English language teaching, first as a teacher and teacher trainer, and then in English language publishing.

She now writes many teaching materials for both primary and secondary learners, including graded readers, which she loves. Her teaching has taken her to many countries around the world including a number of years in China and Italy, but she now lives and works in the Cotswolds in the U.K.

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BEFORE READING

1

Write the names of the continents and the oceans.

Africa Antarctica Arctic Asia Atlantic Europe Indian North America Oceania Pacific South America Southern

Africa

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Match the words with their definitions.

1.

climate

a. a sun and the planets that

2.

greenhouse

b. the power that makes

3.

solar system

c.

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temperature

d. this gives energy when it

are in orbit around it

something move or work involving the whole world

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extreme weather

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global

7.

energy

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space

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fuel

is burned e. how hot or cold something is f. how many people live in a place g. the area outside Earth’s atmosphere h. a glass building for growing plants i. weather that is very bad

population

j.

10.

the weather in a place over a long time

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Chapter

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Weather and Climate

Weather and climate are often talked about at the same time, but they are not the same thing. So, how are they different?

A famous scientist, Andrew John Herbertson, once wrote, “Climate is what we expect. Weather is what we get.”

Wind, rain, sunshine, and snow are all types of weather. Weather changes very quickly, and a place can have different weather from one day to the next; but this is usually in a pattern.

We call this pattern a place’s climate.

The Khasi Hills

Earth’s wettest climate is in the Khasi Hills in India, and Earth’s driest climate is in the Atacama Desert in Chile.

The Atacama Desert

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Climate is the weather pattern in a place over a long time; usually thirty years. So, a place that has a lot of rain year after year has a wet climate, and a place that has a lot of sunshine and very little rain year after year has a dry climate.

In our solar system, Earth is the only planet to have weather that changes very quickly. The water on Earth’s surface helps this: about 71 per cent of the Earth’s surface is covered in water. The water cycle on Earth is very important in making Earth’s weather. The air and the oceans are continually moving water and heat between them, and this makes clouds, rain, wind, and a lot of different types of weather.

The water cycle

Cloud Snow

Rain River

Condensation

Evaporation

Ocean Ground water

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Earth is also the only planet in our solar system to have a climate that is perfect for life – it is not too hot, and not too cold. Why is this? There are two important causes:

Habitable zone

Too hot

Just right

Too cold

The habitable zone

1. Where Earth is in our solar system. Planets that are closer to the sun, like Venus, are too hot for life. Planets that are further away from the sun, like Mars, are too cold for life. The part of the solar system where Earth orbits is called the habitable zone.

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2. Earth’s atmosphere. Earth’s atmosphere is made of many different gases. The most important of these gases for plant and animal life is oxygen; we need oxygen to live. A small number of the gases in the atmosphere help to keep Earth at the perfect temperature for life to grow.

These gases stop some of the sun’s heat from leaving Earth and help keep it warm. These gases are called greenhouse gases, and without them Earth would freeze. The main greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), ozone (O3), and water vapor (H2O).

Earth’s climate system

Sun

Atmosphere Cloud Ice

Plants and animals

Land

Ocean

The gases in the atmosphere work together with the heat from the sun, the water in the oceans, Earth’s land, ice, and living things to make the climate system.

Earth’s oceans hold over 90% of the heat in the climate system, and are responsible for 80% of the water vapor in the atmosphere.

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Carbon dioxide is a very important gas for life on Earth.

Plants need carbon dioxide to live. They take in carbon dioxide, use the carbon to grow, and release the oxygen into the air. Humans and animals can then take in this oxygen and use it to live. Carbon dioxide is also an important greenhouse gas; the natural carbon cycle puts the right amount of carbon dioxide into Earth’s atmosphere to make the temperature perfect for life to grow.

The carbon cycle

A carbon sink is something that takes in and stores carbon.

Plants take in and store carbon, so forests are huge carbon sinks. The oceans and soil are huge carbon sinks, too.

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The oceans are also very important in making Earth’s climate. Ocean currents like the Gulf Stream have an effect on the climate by moving warm water from hot places to cold places, or cold water from cold places to hot places.

The temperature of the water in these currents has a direct effect on the temperature in the places they travel through.

ARCTIC OCEAN

PACIFC OCEAN

ATLANTIC OCEAN

SOUTHERN OCEAN

Warm current

Cold current

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The El Niño – La Niña cycle is a weather pattern that changes the usual Pacific Ocean currents and causes extreme weather like floods in South America, Australia, and areas near the sea in Asia. This cycle happens every three to seven years.

ARCTIC OCEAN

Earth’s ocean currents

INDIAN OCEAN

Neutral current

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